San Marcos man to launch tequila label in 2006

Phillip Soto Mares' friends have known for years that his
tequila was as good as anything being made commercially, and
sometime next year the San Marcos businessman hopes others will
feel the same way.

Soto, 53, hopes to have his El Duende Tequila on shelves next
April, but people can sample it tonight as part of the Spirits of
Mexico fund-raiser at the Plaza del Pasado in San Diego's Old Town.
The fund-raiser will raise money for the Sky Ranch Foundation, a
program for troubled boys, and for Hurricane Katrina victims.

A Fresno native who moved to North County as a teenager, Soto
said he learned how to make tequila from his uncle. The first
batches weren't suitable to drink, but later ones were OK for
personal use.

"I never sold any," he said. "I just gave it to friends, took it
to parties, pretty much since '94."

About three years ago, Soto said he had finally perfected his
technique enough to consider going pro.

While the differences between good and bad tequila can be
extreme, very few steps are involved in its creation, Soto
explained. The spirit is made from the agave plant and fermented
with yeast. The only other ingredient in 100 percent tequila is
water, used to dilute the alcohol content.

Soto uses blue agave, a Southwestern plant with thick, spiny
leaves. The leaves are chopped off and the center bulb is cut into
quarters, then baked in a wood-fired oven for 24 hours. The
caramelized agave is crushed, and about five liters of clear, sweet
mosto oozes out. The liquid is fermented and condensed in a
distiller.

The process makes clear —— or blanco —— tequila. Aging it in
barrels made with American white oak or French oak gives the drink
an amber color and adds flavor. Reposado tequila is aged between
two months and a year, and anejo tequila is aged more than a
year.

Soto already was a successful product-development consultant and
entrepreneur eight years ago when he began studying tequila with
his uncle, who brews it in Guadalajara, Mexico, and who taught his
nephew from the ground up.

"He gave me these tools and said, 'Go harvest that pina,'" Soto
said, referring to the pineapple-like agave bulb that is left after
the leaves are chopped off.

Soto chopped up the agave, baked it and distilled the liquid,
but the results were not impressive.

"It took me a good five years before I got it (the technique)
down," he said. "In other words, when my uncle stopped spitting the
tequila out and would drink it."

While Soto knew how to make tequila, he couldn't just start
brewing it in his San Marcos office. The Mexican government
requires any spirit labeled as tequila to be brewed in Mexico
itself. Otherwise, it must be called an "agave spirit" or other
such name.

Soto found a distiller in Arandas, Jalisco, Mexico, where a
friend of his makes El Charro, the seventh best-selling tequila in
the world.

El Duende, named for a mythical Latin America gnome, will be
bottled in clear, smooth bottles with no novel etchings or
designs.

"I started looking at all the bottles and thought, 'It's time to
simplify,'" said Soto, who has a large collection of exotic tequila
bottles. "We have a nice, clear bottle that shows you what the
tequila looks like."

A bottle of his blanco will sell for $45.99, reposado will sell
for $55.99 and anejo will sell for $65.99. His three-year-reserve
will sell for $99.99.

True, there are much less-expensive bottles of tequila on
shelves, but Soto advices people to read the label to see what they
really are buying.

Mixtos, which are much less expensive, are spirits that are 51
percent agave and 49 percent extra sugar, he said.

"That's what gives you those horrible headaches," Soto said
about the spirits. "For me, I feel it in the top of my palate and
the top of my head. I don't drink mixtos at all." Mexican
regulations allow mixtos to be shipped in bulk and bottled in the
United States, while 100 percent tequila must be bottled in Mexico,
he said.

Soto was invited to attend La Academia Mexicana del Tequila in
Mexico, and last January he earned a certificate as a catador ——
the only one in the United States —— allowing him to hold official
tastings and to judge tequila.

The beverage magazine Cheers has tasted El Duende already, and
its August edition rated Soto's three-year-old Reserva Anejo as No.
1 in a list that included cognac, vodka, gin and two other
tequilas, Sauza Tres Generaciones and Patron.

"Hunt down this three-year-old Reserva Anejo and don't share it
with your in-laws," reviewer Robert Plotkin wrote. "Its generous
bouquet is laced with the bakery-fresh aromas of vanilla, cinnamon
and allspice. The palate is frontloaded with spice, but then slowly
gives way to a warm, peppery glow. The body is buttery and the
finish is sublime. It's an exquisite, museum-grade tequila."

El Duende will be among 60 agave spirits featured tonight at the
Spirits of Mexico in Old Town. The event also features Mexican food
and a silent auction. Soto will be holding 15-minute seminars on
behalf of La Academia Mexicana del Tequila at the event.

Tickets to the event are $40. The Polished Palate, a
Florida-based event organizer that emphasizes educating consumers
about spirits and enjoying them responsibility, has pledged $5
toward Katrina Hurricane relief for every ticket sold.

Tickets can be purchased for $40 online at
www.PolishedPalate.com/store or for $50 at the door.

The event will be 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Plaza del Pasado,
formerly Bazaar Del Mundo, 2702 Congress St. in Old Town.